*Mondo Arata, documentary movie, SD 12′, 2002.
The Akiyoshidai International Art Village (AIAV) centre for music, dance and visual arts, a costly complex of buildings with a kind of uncanny resemblance to German ’30s aesthetic, may be the most controversial work made by the world famous architect Arata Isozaki. The movie camera leads us through dichotomies: the architectural space and intervention of Myke Bode and Takuji Kogo, the interview excerpts by the architect Isozaki and the art critic Staffan Schmidt, transforming on the way the reportage into a thriller with a second hidden finale.
The documentary, produced for the AIAV exhibition and residence programme TRANS_2002-2003, may be a criticism on certain architecture that is the protagonist of urban development affecting much of the Asian continent in recent years.
*Mondo Arata, still from the movie.
Federico Baronello 